Epilogue of The Imam's Army by Ahmet Sik

Journalist and author Ahmet
Sik was arrested in Turkey on March 3, 2011, as was award-winning
journalist Nedim
Sener. An international
outcry followed, fueled by concerns that the arrests were in political
retaliation for their writings. Many observers feel that the charges
against both of them are highly improbable. Indeed, the Ergenekon
investigation is now being viewed more and more as a political
circus.

At the time of his arrest, Ahmet Sik was working on a book
entitled "Imam'in Ordasu" ("The Imam's Army").
Here, "imam" refers to Fethullah Gulen, whose followers (the
"cemaat," or religious community, a.k.a. Gulen Movement) are the main
subject of the book. On March 24, 2011, Turkish
police raided the office of Radikal, a Turkish national newspaper, in an
attempt to eradicate all copies of the book, which they allege is an
"illegal organizational document."

Many Americans would like to know what Ahmet Sik, Nedim Sener and other
arrested Turkish journalists and authors have to say about Fethullah Gulen, and
it is extremely unfortunate that their writings are not yet available in
English.

Ahmet Sik's book draft, which is not entirely ready for publication, was made
available on the internet after his arrest and the attempts to destroy the
manuscript. Below is a translation of his Epilogue.

We hope for the quick release of Ahmet Sik, Nedim Sener, and many other imprisoned
journalists and authors.

After the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, people
started to talk more frequently about the existence of a “Fethullahçı”
(Fethullahist) organization in the bureaucracy, especially in the police force.
When Ergenekon investigations and lawsuit were launched and several soldiers
ended up to be defendants in this lawsuit, the police force conducting
investigations was denounced bitterly. Investigations were launched in the
middle of 2007, first into the circles that were one way or another linked –
directly or indirectly – to the Ergenekon case and then spread to almost all
segments of society and since the beginning of the investigations we started to
hear more about the alleged Fethullahist organization within the police force.
The critics of the police actions claimed that they were in fact launched due
to social or political identities of individuals who were declared suspects and
then charged or because such individuals were “radical seculars” or “obsessed
modernists” who were against the ruling AKP party. The criticism directed
against the police force and public prosecutors, especially Zekeriya Öz, always
had the same motive: Fethullahism.

We do not know for certain whether the names, persons or establishments that
are at the center of the allegations do indeed belong to the Gülen Movement.
However, considering the existing situation, it won’t be wrong to conclude that
the Ergenekon investigation and lawsuit is a means that the AKP is using to
restrict freedoms. This investigation and lawsuit are important in terms of
reflecting on the power of the Gülen community, which controls the police force
and aims to maintain its monopoly in the education market, including courses
and scholarships, against some competitors (ÇYDD – Association for
Support of Modern Life, ÇEV – Contemporary Education Foundation), attempting to
eliminate them by initiating investigations against them and using their
exponentially growing financial power to expand their market share.

Although there are people suggesting that these communities are religious NGOs,
it is a controversial designation for the Gülen Movement. With the investments
that began in the 1970s, especially in the education sector, the Golden Generation that was expected
to become the administrator of the future occupied bureaucratic positions now,
in the first decade of the 21st century, exactly as scheduled. With the facts
we have, can we really suggest that this community, present at every level of
bureaucracy, especially in the police force and Turkish Armed Forces, although
we do not know yet to what extent, is non-governmental? On the other hand, can
we believe that they have no desire to govern the state to advance their beliefs
and have no such intentions? Above all, no one denies that the greatest shadow
on the Ergenekon investigations and lawsuits, which displays one of the most
important realities of revenge exacted in the country, is the Gülen Movement’s
infiltration into the police force and judiciary. For this reason alone, and
fully aware of people with ideological expectations, if the only ray of hope
for those who live in this fearful climate is to rely on the military coup, the
only notion that comes to mind is the expression “between two fires”.

The initial point of this book was based on this situation. Besides that, one
of the reasons for publishing this book was the conviction of Hanefi Avcı, one
of the well-known chiefs of police in Turkey, who found himself behind bars
after publishing his book describing the Gülen Movement’s organization within
the police force, including some accusations about the community. As a matter
of fact, even before Avcı, many well-known influential and important officers
were suspended from the police force, the so-called “Castle of the [Gülen]
Community" through similar tricks. Sabri Uzun, who served as the head of
the intelligence department for six years, Emin Arslan, a renowned secular
Atatürkist, Faruk Ünsal, Orhan Özdemir, Mustafa Gülcü and Celal Uzunkaya,
famous for their close relations with the sects, and finally Hanefi Avcı, who
was a far-right nationalist in the past and who once was closely related
to Fethullah Gülen community were let go one by one from their positions. These
individuals had different backgrounds but what all of them had in common was
that they all were officers at the Intelligence, Smuggling or Organized Crime
Departments of the Directorate of General Security or acted as deputy director
generals responsible for these departments. The infamous book that resulted in
Avcı’s arrest helped us understand to a certain extent why these individuals
were relieved from their duties and appointed to rather insignificant
positions. We cannot determine at this point whether or not the facts listed in
this book are true. However, this book is a guide for you to understand to what
extent these allegations are accurate. More importantly, this book is an
important reference to assess Ergenekon investigations and developments that
followed them.

In our opinion, the Ergenekon investigations once again caught the state within
the state in action, just as it happened earlier in the so-called Susurluk
case, but now, almost all segments of the society view these investigations as
a mere illusion. Kurds, Islamists, socialists, social democrats that resent
nationalism with some reservation who were all oppressed or victimized by the
military once, or those who had some conscience became mute when faced with
this illusion. We were led to believe that this illusion was in fact the
reality by making certain defendants who were known to be guilty, a part of
these investigations. In fact, neither the state within the state was
questioned nor there was an intention of getting even with it. We are sure that
some of these defendants are in fact guilty, but unfortunately, none of them
have been tried yet for their alleged crimes. For example, eight bags of JITEM
(Intelligence and Anti-Terror Gendarmerie) documents found with Arif Doğan that
bore evidence to the unlawful operations executed in the name of the state were
classified as those of “Vital Interest to the State” and banned from public
eye. Worst of all, although public prosecutors launched investigations against
anyone who was in opposition to the [Gülen] community or AKP and included them
in docket files of Ergenekon, KCK (Union of Kurdistan Communities) or
Revolutionary Quarters, they have not yet acted in any way on this official
correspondence that substantiate the notion of unlawful acts committed in the
South East war zone. Even though every indictment in the Ergenekon case made a
reference to the notorious murder of Hrant Dink, the investigation into his
murder was never made part of the Ergenekon trial and no progress was made in
this murder investigation apart from associating it with the defendants in
hand.

Any member of the judiciary who touched the [Gülen] community in some way were
brought into line with the help of the media, just as it happened to the
Erzincan Chief Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner. The developments with series of
anonymous letters, so-called admissible confessions and secret witnesses looked
as if they followed simple scripts written by the same hand. The way these
developments were covered by the pro-community media and served as a base for
further investigations made things even more confusing. Hanefi Avcı was one of
the most prominent figures that denounced these developments, and he ended up
in prison just like everybody else who openly opposed the [Gülen] community.
When allegations made by Avcı were sidelined and a discussion started on why
these allegations were made, much of the media opted to keep silence. Those who
broke the silence proved to be quite skillful in diversions. The most dramatic
example was the attitude towards Hanefi Avcı’s allegations by some media
outlets who published the “breaking news” about Ergenekon investigations. I
wonder what these “colleagues” would have written if the word “community” would
have been replaced with “Ergenekon” in Avcı’s allegations.

Today, victims of yesterday are getting even with their oppressors, but we are
yet to see whether there will be time when some start getting even for what is
happening now. The purpose of this book is not to clear the names of the accused
police officers or Ergenekon suspects. All we wanted was to show what happens
to those who are bold enough to say, “The King is naked”. Unfortunately, there
are only very few media outlets and journalists who are doing this. And those
who do have been silenced down or censored through various financial or
ideological justifications.

For this reason, the number of books written about Ergenekon and similar
investigations has lately been on the rise. Along with the authors who write
books because they cannot report news, there are also biased books and books
that consist of compilation of “news on demand”. It seems, however, that if the
allegations of a “white collar tutelage” increase in scope, not writing books
but having access to the reader may become rather difficult in a country where
no news can be reported.